


just around the corner.

by bythegleamofalantern



Category: Glitch Techs (Cartoon), Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst!, Gen, Other, also!, crossover ship angst but also character study let's get it, exes to ???, glitch techs au?glitch techs au, nb mitch williams, prequel fic!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26944450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bythegleamofalantern/pseuds/bythegleamofalantern
Summary: The past has a funny way of rearing up it's head again, even you've gone and buried it.
Relationships: Mitch Williams/Kimiko Tohomiko
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	just around the corner.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first thing i've written in MONTHS lol, i just felt inspired because a)i love glitch techs and b)have been waiting to write something for my au/crossover ship i've been planning to do for so long SO. here it is!enjoy.

Mitch is slowly ( _slowly_ , mind you) learning to take it easy. 

Taking a break, even a day off, from work is something his mind hasn't fully grasped yet. Part of him still feels on edge, like he should be doing something or grinding it out to protect his score on the leader boards the same way he has for the past 3 or so years. Being back home with his siblings is nice though, he has to admit. For one thing, there's actual home cooking instead of eating takeaway day in and day out. (He's never quite had the skill his older siblings have with cooking, loath as he is to admit.) More than that, though, it's nice to be part of a team again... His team. _His family_.

As he sits in his room cleaning, he can still hear Ruf and Speck bickering about who got what power-up or who's controller was whose. It makes him shake his head and groan in mild frustration... and yet it feels oddly comforting. Mitch Williams isn't one to smile, at least not outright, but he can't stop himself from finding the antics of his older siblings at least a tad amusing. Yes, he certainly has missed home, even if he had a good enough reason in his eyes for leaving. 

His hands busy themselves with arranging things on shelves, old school books and trophies and manga volumes he left behind in his old room. All this paraphernalia makes him feel nostalgic, for better days. Well, not better days, per se-just more unencumbered ones.

He's glad enough that his siblings have left his room mostly intact and unperturbed in his absence, but it felt empty without him around. A room is meant to be lived in, after all.

As he cleans, he makes this space his own again, perhaps if only because of his physical presence. As he does so, he finds something peculiar. _A bracelet._

Mitch turns it around in his palm. Homemade, plastic beads, with alternating dark blue, light blue and white beads, It's a small enough trinket in and of itself, but the meaning behind it makes it a little weightier. He still remembers the moment he received the bracelet and the person who gave it to him, that one gaming tournament almost a lifetime ago. If he closes his eyes for a moment, he can remember her smile, her laugh, her dark strawberry-smelling hair and focused blue eyes, the scent of the sea and the feel and warmth of her hand on his own. Kimiko wasn't the first person he'd ever liked, nor the first person who had ever liked him, but she wasn't someone he could ever forget. That was the kind of person she was. Brave, confident, much more than he was at that age or any age.

In hindsight, he'd messed up a bunch of times, tripping over himself and his words talking to her. He'd had only the fraction of the confidence he had today, and most of that was based on his gaming skill, not his looks or his charm. Beating a video game boss or winning tournaments was one thing, but talking to someone he liked, talking to someone as wonderful as Kimiko Tohomiko was. She was everything he wanted to be, with her charm and bravado and grace. How he'd gotten her attention at all was something of a mystery to him at 14, and still a mystery to this day if truth be told, but somehow, she'd seen something in him perhaps he couldn't. Being her friend was marvellous in and of itself, but learning she'd liked him back was something of a miracle. He still isn't sure what gave him the courage to take the leap and finally, _finally_ , kiss her, but he did. The next few months were history, were bliss... Until they weren't.

Mitch frowns slightly, palming the bracelet. It probably doesn't even fit him anymore, and the plastic beads have long since lost their original sheen. It's emblematic of a different time, of a different era, of a different Mitch Williams before all the wins, before being a Glitch Tech. Besides, Kimiko is someone he hasn't talked to or heard of or from in years. Would he still recognize her, right here and now, if he saw her? Would she still recognize him?

Sometimes Mitch doesn't even feel like he truly recognizes himself. 

He's indeed proud of the person he is now. Of course, he is. It wasn't easy, after all, to get to where he is today. Grinding it out and having to claw and claw your way up and ignore all the inner and outer voices clamoring and claiming you weren't good enough or telling you to stop was no small feat, and every victory and win small and big brought with it renewed resolve. He'd earned everything he'd gotten, wasn't that worth a bit of an ego boost? Being the best meant you were allowed to feel good about yourself. It meant having to sacrifice a few things, things like free time, things like friends and family and relationships...even if it was painful. That was the mantra he'd lived by for years. It's still hard to undo that mentality, get out of that way of thinking even now... Though the progress into merging who he is now and who he was then is ongoing. Slow, he admits, but ongoing. Being around his siblings helps, of course, and even if he'll never admit it to them... Five and Miko's friendship with each other is sometimes heartwarming and makes him question things when it's not overly sappy. Sometimes. (Again, he'll deny it till the day he dies. But still.) 

"Mitch?" Audrey says as she knocks on the door. Her voice is clear, though muddled. 

"What is it?" Mitch moves towards the door, but before he does so, he places the bracelet on his nightstand gingerly, flat out. Just in case.

Audrey opens the door, sticking her head in slightly."We're stuck on this level of Bug Invasion. Care to join us?"

At that, Mitch grins, smirking slightly. "Of course you need my help. Not like I was the one who unlocked the Scale Armor to get into the Grasshopper Temple by myself or anything..."

Audrey snorts, rolling her eyes. "Oi, enough with the posturing. You up for a little co-op or not?"

"Well, since you put it like that-" Mitch makes a show of tapping his chin in thought. "Can't say no to a little co-op with my favorites." 

Audrey grins, wrapping her arms around his shoulder as they walk out of he room together.

This little blast from the past and self-reflection will have to wait... At least, for now. 

He's got a game to help his siblings beat.

***

Kimiko's been alone before. Maybe alone _too long_ , even. Alone, however, is where she finds herself now.

It's the night before she's heading off on a plane to America and she's sitting down small popup udon stand slurping a pretty mean bowl of miso soup. There's some song blaring from the radio in the back, something by Akina Nakamori she thinks. It's cheerful, hopeful, but a little bit heartbreaking. It's apt, almost. It's not until a few seconds later that she realizes it's Miki Matsubara and _Stay With Me,_ and that makes her smile. Wordlessly, she begins to hum along.

"You like this song?" The old lady cleans the spot in front of her, looking her in the eyes just so. There's a knowing gaze, almost too knowing. 

"It's an old favorite," Kimiko explains with a smile. "It's something my dad used to play at home when I was a kid, so." The old lady running the udon shop nods in understanding.

"Okay." The old lady fixes her with a smile. "You're alone tonight?"

"It's fine," Kimiko says reassuringly. "My hotel's just a block away and then I'm going to the airport early in the morning.", Kimiko tells her the truth, but not the whole truth. It'd be weird, she thinks, having to explain the whole situation. She can't fully say that she's Kimiko Tohomiko, the daughter of Toshiro Tohomiko, heir to Hinobi Technology and Electronics and that she's going back to America to investigate an uptick of new video game glitches spawning. No, that'd be far too intricate to get into, for several reasons. She's a little bit afraid, to be truthful, but she lets herself stay in the moment, the present. It's nice to just be a normal girl sometimes and blend in with the rest of the crowd in Tokyo.

"America, huh? That's far."

"It is," Kimiko admits. "I'm visiting my grandparents since it's summer there." Which is also true. Her grandparents live in Bailey, California, and she hasn't seen them in ages. It'd be nice to visit them, though her father isn't coming with her this time. He was busy with conferences and work this summer, and so he wouldn't be able to take time off. It's fine though. She's grown up now, 17 going on 18, and she's going away on a trip by herself. Just her on the plane. It makes her feel scared, admittedly, if only a little bit. But there's another part of her too, one that's excited at the possibility. She remembers how her father was shocked, how he kept asking her if it was what she wanted to do, and do on her own. "I'll be fine, papa," she said with a grin. And it had to be true. She had to make it true, even if it wasn't. She has to grow up, take the leap and take action. Someone has to take responsibility for the rogue glitches her own company's behind. Why would it not be her?

"That sounds nice."

"It is." Kimiko grins, though her cheeks begin to flush a little as she begins to further assess and mull over the situation. There's a lot to think about, in truth; new settings, new responsibilities... But there's something else to think about as well. If she remembers correctly, Mitch is also there, back in Bailey. Given the fact that he works for Hinobi as a glitch tech... The prospect of seeing her ex again is, in a word, very conflicting. Not surprising, given how things turned out in the end.

When she'd met him for the first time on a charity stream, she hadn't thought of Mitch as anything more than a colleague and fellow gamer, though she did think he was, admittedly, cute with his dimpled cheeks and toothy grin and swoopy white hair that always ran the risk of falling into his dark brown eyes. Several months and streams and late-night video calls later, they were solid friends. Strictly friends though. Yes, Mitch Williams was her friend, her best friend, her dorky and awkward and frustratingly adorable but endearingly bright and eager nerd of a friend. Until she'd gotten the courage to say something and open her mouth about her feelings. It's almost like yesterday, that one summer night during the Cyber Island international tournament. She still remembers the wind in her hair, the smell of the bonfire to the left of them and the thrumming in her chest during that first kiss. Oh yes. That's something no amount of time could make her possibly forget.

It makes her smile, reminiscing, but there's also a sense of forlornness. Long-distance had certainly played a part in their eventual separation, but at the same time... There was a point where they either stopped trying to make things work, stopped caring. Maybe it was his new job, the new hours and the new pressures it brought with it, maybe it was her. Whatever the case, that spark died, died a million little deaths by missed calls and messages left on read and millions and millions of other ways. Not a big, grandiose, dramatic death the way she'd always assumed a breakup would be, but a slow, drawn-out death. It still made her sad to think about. The person she thought she knew best back then is a stranger to her now. If she sees him again... well, it's not going to be the same. She knows that much.

Whatever happened though, and whatever happens, she was glad that they had a time that was _theirs._ For better or worse, that summer would live on, and so would they, frozen in that one special moment. Moments don't last forever, but the memory remains. She's glad she has that much. It warms her inside, the same way the soup has.

Eventually, she finishes her meal, thanking the cook profusely as she walks back into the Tokyo city streets and lights. She glows different colours under them; pink and blue and red and yellow. The sound of the city is so lovely, so bright. She says goodbye in her heart, goodbye with her hands as they run across the concrete of a wall. 

Tomorrow morning, she's off on a new adventure in a new city. She thinks about that prospect, choosing to look forward with eagerness. New scenery, new experiences... New friends. And maybe, just _maybe_ , an old one.

Almost instinctually, she takes out her phone the minute she arrives back at her hotel and sits down on the comforter. She scrolls and scrolls, but she eventually finds it. Tiny Mitch and Kimiko beaming at each other, holding each other as if for shelter. 

_How happy we were,_ Kimiko thinks with a smile. H _ow little we knew back then._ To be fair, however, perhaps there might be some other future version of Kimiko that's thinking the same thing about her. _About them._

**Author's Note:**

> if you're reading this you're at the end of the fic!thank you for reading this far, i hoped you liked it!as always, kudos and reviews are always greatly appreciated <3  
> this is a oneshot (that got way too long but regardless) that's an intro/prequel to another project i have in the works. keep an eye out for that!  
> also... he/him non binary mitch. that's all. thank u for your time.  
> -bythegleamoflantern


End file.
